Although the season opener is more than two months away, the Packer football team started building a strong foundation for their 2009 campaign recently.

Austin sent 42 players and seven coaches to the North Dakota State Team Camp in Fargo, N.D. June 13-15 and got their fill of football over a three-day span. The squad participated in 18 full contact scrimmages, held team practices and practiced with some of the NDSU coaches.

The camp was preceded by a week of hour long practice sessions in Austin to work on plays.

At NDSU, the Packers ran 200 plays in three days.

“It’s a heavy dose of football in a short amount of time,” said Austin head coach Tim Hermann, who once coached at NDSU.

This is the fourth year the Packers have attended the camp and the attendance has grown each summer — 24 players went the first year. That is an impressive feat since the players are going on their own free will.

 “It’s really driven by the kids,” Hermann said. “I can’t tell people they have to go, so I tell them if they want to go they’ll have to do the recruiting.”

The camp helped build team chemistry as players spent about 11 total hours on a bus together and roomed up together.

“It’s good team bonding and gets every one closer. It helps us get ready for the season,” said Austin senior running back Jerrad Ryks, who ran for 1,145 yards and 15 TDs last season.

While at the camp, Austin competed against about 20 teams, including some bigger schools from Minnesota and Wisconsin, and a state champion team from North Dakota.

“The competition there was crazy,” Austin wide receiver Jamaal Gibson said.

The Packers gave an idea of what their newly formed offensive line may look like in the fall. Austin will return just two starters up front in Brady Klingfus and Joe Diggins. The newcomers – Isaac Bartlett, Jacob Hines, and Miguel Hernandez-Miller, all held their own.

“Everyone was a little nervous going in, since our whole line was a little younger coming in. But they did good, surprisingly enough,” Ryks said.

Austin quarterback T.J. Fritz also put on a strong showing. The senior took over the starting quarterback job halfway through last season when Nate Justice was injured.

“T.J.’s a good athlete so whenever he gets the ball in his hands, something’s bound to happen,” Gibson said. “He knows all the calls and he made some nice reads.”

After learning a few things at the camp, the Packers will now be able to look back at what they did as all of their practices and scrimmages at NDSU were taped.

“It gives us good chance to look back and see where everybody’s at,” Hermann said.

While looking back is nice, I’m sure the Packers are now looking forward to a solid year after a weekend of good play and team bonding.